American Healthcare REIT (NYSE:AHR) vs. Community Healthcare Trust (NYSE:CHCT) Critical Review

Community Healthcare Trust (NYSE:CHCT) and American Healthcare REIT (NYSE:AHR) are both real estate companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, risk, profitability, valuation, dividends, institutional ownership and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Community Healthcare Trust and American Healthcare REIT, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Community Healthcare Trust	0	3	2	0	2.40
American Healthcare REIT	0	2	12	0	2.86

Community Healthcare Trust presently has a consensus price target of $18.50, indicating a potential upside of 24.35%. American Healthcare REIT has a consensus price target of $62.58, indicating a potential upside of 11.22%. Given Community Healthcare Trust’s higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Community Healthcare Trust is more favorable than American Healthcare REIT.

Volatility & Risk

Community Healthcare Trust has a beta of 0.69, indicating that its stock price is 31% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, American Healthcare REIT has a beta of 0.76, indicating that its stock price is 24% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Community Healthcare Trust and American Healthcare REIT’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Community Healthcare Trust	16.81%	4.96%	2.10%
American Healthcare REIT	4.84%	3.63%	2.25%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

87.8% of Community Healthcare Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 16.7% of American Healthcare REIT shares are owned by institutional investors. 5.3% of Community Healthcare Trust shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.7% of American Healthcare REIT shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

Community Healthcare Trust pays an annual dividend of $1.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 8.9%. American Healthcare REIT pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.8%. Community Healthcare Trust pays out 197.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. American Healthcare REIT pays out 147.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Community Healthcare Trust has raised its dividend for 3 consecutive years. Community Healthcare Trust is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Community Healthcare Trust and American Healthcare REIT”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Community Healthcare Trust	$121.19 million	3.52	$5.10 million	$0.67	22.20
American Healthcare REIT	$2.50 billion	4.90	$69.81 million	$0.68	82.75

American Healthcare REIT has higher revenue and earnings than Community Healthcare Trust. Community Healthcare Trust is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than American Healthcare REIT, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

American Healthcare REIT beats Community Healthcare Trust on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Community Healthcare Trust

Community Healthcare Trust Incorporated (the Company”, we”, our”) was organized in the State of Maryland on March 28, 2014. The Company is a fully-integrated healthcare real estate company that owns and acquires real estate properties that are leased to hospitals, doctors, healthcare systems or other healthcare service providers. As of March 31, 2024, the Company had investments of approximately $1.1 billion in 197 real estate properties (including a portion of one property accounted for as a sales-type lease with a gross amount totaling approximately $3.0 million and two properties classified as an asset held for sale with an aggregate amount totaling approximately $7.5 million. The properties are located in 35 states, totaling approximately 4.4 million square feet in the aggregate and were approximately 92.3% leased, excluding real estate assets held for sale, at March 31, 2024 with a weighted average remaining lease term of approximately 6.9 years.

About American Healthcare REIT

Formed by the successful merger of Griffin-American Healthcare REIT III and Griffin-American Healthcare REIT IV, as well as the acquisition of the business and operations of American Healthcare Investors, American Healthcare REIT is one of the larger healthcare-focused real estate investment trusts globally with assets totaling approximately $4.2 billion in gross investment value. The company benefits from a fully integrated management platform comprised of more than one hundred experienced and skilled professionals, many of whom have worked together since 2006 and have successfully invested in and managed healthcare real estate through multiple market cycles. The management team has a proven track record, deep industry relationships and unparalleled insight into each of the company's assets having built and nurtured the company's international portfolio since its original property acquisition in 2014. The strength of the management team, coupled with the quality of the assets, has American Healthcare REIT poised to capitalize on compelling growth driven by powerful demographic trends. With its 19 million-square-foot, 312-building portfolio of medical office buildings, senior housing communities, skilled nursing facilities and integrated senior health campuses diversified across 36 states and the United Kingdom, the tri-party transaction was a critical step in ideally positioning American Healthcare REIT for a future public listing or IPO on a national stock exchange at the most opportune time. By listing the company's shares on a national exchange, we believe the company will gain greater access to attractive capital that will fuel future growth, broaden our investor base and also provide liquidity to our fellow stockholders. American Healthcare REIT, Inc. operates as a subsidiary of Griffin Capital Company, LLC.